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Context of '1986: White Supremacist Church Official Fires on Lost Couple'

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A Time magazine profile lambasts the racist, anti-Communist John Birch Society (JBS—see December 2011), in what is many Americans’ first exposure to the group. It delineates the organization’s penchant for secrecy, its domination by its “dictatorial” leader, Robert Welch, and its hardline battle against almost every element of the federal government as “agents of Communism.” Forty to 60 percent of the federal government is controlled by Communism, the JBS believes. Time calls the organization “a tiresome, comic-opera joke” that nonetheless has cells in 35 states and an ever-widening influence. In Wichita, Kansas, JBS student members are trained to inform their cell leaders of “Communist” influences they may detect in their classroom lectures, and the offending teacher is berated by parents. A Wichita businessman who wanted to give a donation to the University of Wichita decided not to donate after being hounded by local JBS members, who wanted the university to fire professors and remove selected books from its library. “My business would be wrecked,” the businessman explains, “if those people got on the phone and kept on yelling that I am a Communist because I give money to the school.” Nashville, Tennessee, JBS members organize community members to verbally attack neighbors whom they suspect of Communist affiliations. JBS’s current priority, Time writes, is to bring about the impeachment of Chief Justice Earl Warren. Welch, who obtained his wealth from his brother’s candymaking business, believes that Social Security and the federal income tax are all part of the “creeping socialism” that is taking over the federal government. He retired from the business in 1957 and founded the JBS shortly thereafter, naming it for a US Navy captain killed by Chinese Communist guerrillas after the end of World War II. Welch’s seminal tract, “The Politician,” accuses President Eisenhower and his brother Milton Eisenhower of being Communist plants, and accuses both men of treason against the nation. (Time 3/10/1961)

Ben Klassen. [Source: Creativity Movement (.com)]Former Florida state legislator Benhardt “Ben” Klassen, who served as Florida chair of the 1968 presidential campaign of George Wallace (D-AL), forms the Church of the Creator (COTC) in Lighthouse Point, Florida. Klassen was born in the Ukraine in 1918, and later lived in Mexico and Canada before moving to California as an adult. He is a former elementary school teacher and an inventor, earning a patent for an electric can opener in 1954. He moved to Florida in 1958, where he became a successful real estate agent. He became a Republican representative to the Florida House of Representatives in 1965, where he campaigned against desegregation and the federal government. He is a lifetime member of the far-right John Birch Society (see March 10, 1961 and December 2011), though he has denounced the group as a “smokescreen for the Jews” and accused Wallace of “betraying” his supporters by intentionally courting African-American support. Klassen explains his race-based religion in his church’s 511-page holy book, Nature’s Eternal Religion. Among its “16 commandments”: “It is our sacred goal to populate the lands of this earth with White people exclusively.” Klassen popularizes the war cry “Rahowa,” which stands for RAcial HOly WAr. (Anti-Defamation League 1993; Southern Poverty Law Center 9/1999) Members of the COTC, according to Klassen’s writings, see “every issue, whether religious, political, or racial, [a]s viewed through the eyes of the White Man and exclusively from the point of view of the White race as a whole.… We completely reject the Judeo-democratic-Marxist values of today and supplant them with new and basic values, of which race is the foundation.” While most right-wing extremist groups use Christianity to justify their racism, Klassen and the COTC attack Christianity as a “tremendous weapon in the worldwide Jewish drive of race-mixing.” Klassen writes that Jews “concocted” Christianity “for the very purpose of mongrelizing and destroying the White Race.” According to Klassen, Jews are “parasites” who “control and manipulate the finances, the propaganda, the media, and the governments of the world.” (Anti-Defamation League 7/6/1999) In 2004, author Chip Berlet will write that Klassen’s religion, “Creativity,” claims that whites are destined “to rule the world and thus fulfill the purpose of the universe. To attain this destiny, it is necessary to destroy the enemies and race traitors who prevent this from happening. The primary enemies are Jews, blacks, and other ‘mud people,’ and white race traitors, including most Christians. Klassen credits the influence of Hitler’s Mein Kampf in the development of his views.… What Klassen did was to pick up ideas from the theories of [German philosopher Friedrich] Nietzsche, pantheisim, Odinism, and Celtic paganism as filtered through German Nazi retelling of the Norse heroic warrior myths, to create a religion of Aryanist white supremacy. Discarding the details, he created a form of cosmotheism in which the supreme power is the collective will of the Aryan race. The duty of every member of the Aryan race is to reflect the ideals of the heroic warrior and do battle with the enemies of the race.… Like other forms of fascism, the idea of action is central to the philosophy, as is the celebration of violence and the spilling of blood as part of a rite of passage to full adulthood.” (Chip Berlet 2004)

Ben Klassen, the founder and leader of the Church of the Creator (COTC—see 1973), mails unsolicited copies of his booklet, “The Brutal Truth About Inflation and Financial Enslavement—The Federal Reserve Board—The Most Gigantic Counterfeiting Ring in the World,” to people and organizations he feels might be interested in his views. The essay alleges that “the Federal Reserve banks are owned, lock, stock, and barrel, by a criminal gang of ‘International Bankers,’” and claims, “The Federal Reserve owns the US government and manipulates it like a puppet, solely for the interests of this avaricious international gang of Jewish jackals, who control the world, its money, and its economy.” The essay concludes, “Now that you understand the Jewish program of piracy, looting, and enslavement by means of the Federal Reserve and money manipulations, now get the rest of the story and the program of the Church of the Creator by reading their White Man’s Bible: Nature’s Eternal Religion” (see 1981). (Anti-Defamation League 1993)

’White Man’s Bible,’ by Ben Klassen. [Source: PublicEye (.org)]Ben Klassen, the founder and leader of the Church of the Creator (COTC—see 1973), publishes a second book, The White Man’s Bible, which he markets as a “program for the survival, expansion, and advancement of the white race.” (Southern Poverty Law Center 9/1999) In his book, Klassen writes: “The n_ggers is [sic] the vital means of b_stardizing the White Race.… The Jews are therefore madly pushing a program of upgrading the n_ggers and pulling down the White.” Klassen writes that the only solution to this issue is for whites to ship African-Americans back to Africa, “drive the Jews from power and render them harmless,” and “hang the traitors of our own race.” He continues his attack on non-whites by writing: “Today’s Black Plague is spelled n_ggers.… We regard them as subhuman or humanoid.… The most deadly threat the White Race faces is the tremendous expansion of the mud races led by the arch-enemy—the treacherous Jew.… We… declare everlasting war on the Jews, a war to the finish, until we have expelled them from all the lands inhabited by the white race.” (Anti-Defamation League 1993; Chip Berlet 2004)

Ben Klassen, the founder and leader of the Church of the Creator (COTC—see 1973), moves the church from Florida to a large lot in Mulberry, North Carolina, opening a post office box in nearby Otto. He chooses the site because he believes Florida is too dangerous to live in. “I think South Florida is due for a lot of turmoil when bloody fighting breaks out,” he says. “Actually, I expect the financial collapse of the entire country, and blood will be flowing in the streets.” He and fellow COTC members build a personal residence, a three-story church, a small warehouse, and a “school for gifted boys.” Klassen begins calling himself “Pontifex Maximus” of the church, a Latin term meaning “high priest,” and begins writing a newsletter, “Racial Loyalty.” Later in the year, COTC is granted an exemption from state taxes based on its status as a church. (Anti-Defamation League 1993; Southern Poverty Law Center 9/1999) In the years to come, the Mulberry site will become a full-fledged “compound.” A September 1992 article in Mirabella magazine will observe that the “seventeen-acre landscaped compound… includes small-arms firing ranges, paramilitary barracks, and other buildings.… Inside a large converted barn that serves as headquarters, church founder and leader, Ben Klassen… sits beneath a large painted portrait of Adolf Hitler, ‘The greatest leader the white race ever had,’ says Klassen.… Since 1990 groups of committed young men have traveled here for extensive political mining under Klassen’s tutelage. The recruits wear white berets or cowboy hats, live in the barracks, and practice shooting with automatic weapons on the firing range. Many are older teenagers. ‘Exceptional boys,’ Klassen calls them.” (Anti-Defamation League 1993)

Carl Messick, the “security chief” of the Church of the Creator (COTC—see 1973 and 1982-1983), fires 19 shots at the car of a Georgia couple who accidentally drive onto the COTC grounds. Messick will later be sentenced to seven years in prison. This is the first reported problem a COTC member has with the law. (Southern Poverty Law Center 9/1999)

Ben Klassen, the founder and leader of the Church of the Creator (COTC—see 1973 and 1982-1983), travels to California to ask John Metzger, son of neo-Nazi White Aryan Resistance (WAR) founder Tom Metzger, about taking over the COTC. Klassen is 70 and actively looking for a successor. Metzger, saying he “wouldn’t want to be affiliated with a church,” declines. Metzger’s WAR, a nexus for neo-Nazi “skinheads” around the Northwest, is in temporary decline, having suffered a $12.5 million judgment against it from a civil suit filed on behalf of an Ethiopian murder victim and having been embarrassed by the disclosure of the fact that the Metzgers had spent WAR funds on personal items such as Tom Metzger’s toupee. COTC will ultimately benefit from the split, gaining many disenchanted WAR members. (Anti-Defamation League 1993; Southern Poverty Law Center 9/1999)

Ben Klassen, the founder and leader of the Church of the Creator (COTC—see 1973), publishes another book, this one titled Rahowa! This Planet is All Ours. The term “rahowa” is short for the COTC “battle cry” RAcial HOly WAr. In the book, Klassen declares: “RAHOWA! In this one word we sum up the total goal and program of not only the Church of the Creator, but of the total White Race, and it is this: We take up the challenge. We gird for total war against the Jews and the rest of the g_ddamned mud races of the world—politically, militantly, financially, morally, and religiously. In fact, we regard it as the heart of our religious creed, and as the most sacred credo of all. We regard it as a holy war to the finish—a racial holy war. Rahowa! is INEVITABLE. It is the Ultimate and Only solution.” Klassen predicts: “No longer can the mud races and the White Race live on the same planet and survive. It is now either them or us. We want to make damn sure it is we who survive. This planet is from now on all ours, and will be the one and only habitat for our future progeny for all time to come.” (Anti-Defamation League 1993)

The Church of the Creator (COTC—see 1973) loses its tax-exempt privilege (see 1982-1983). A review by Macon County tax officials concludes that the church’s North Carolina property does not qualify for religious tax exemptions. (Southern Poverty Law Center 9/1999)

Ben Klassen, the 72-year-old founder and leader of the Church of the Creator (COTC—see 1973 and 1982-1983), announces that he has found a successor (see 1988). Klassen announces that Rudy “Butch” Stanko, currently serving a six-year sentence for selling tainted meat, will take over once he is released from prison. Skanko is, according to Klassen, an “outstanding man, who has been tested by fire and torture, by success and adversity.” Stanko is the former owner of the Nebraska Beef Packer and Cattle King companies, until he was proven by investigative reporters to have sold unsanitary meat to school cafeterias. He is serving the final year of a six-year prison term. Klassen became aware of Stanko through his book The Score, an intensely anti-Semitic screed accusing Jews of destroying his meat-packing corporation. Stanko writes in the February 1990 issue of the COTC’s newsletter “Racial Loyalty”: “It is a great honor and a supreme challenge to be selected as the next Pontifex Maximus of the Church of the Creator.… It is my avowed purpose to provide the necessary leadership, organizational and promotional talents to… smash the tyrannical Jewish network once and for all time. It is my hope and dedicated goal to bring this about in the next decade, the last decade history has allowed us for the final showdown.” Unfortunately for his dreams of leadership, Stanko will be arrested three months after his release from prison for speeding, obstructing a police operation, criminal mischief, and driving without a license; he will twice attack police officers during the booking procedure. The COTC will cut ties with Stanko, claiming that he is no longer interested in being part of the organization. (Anti-Defamation League 1993; Southern Poverty Law Center 9/1999)

Matthew Hayhow, the 23-year-old leader of the Ohio chapter of the Church of the Creator (COTC—see 1973 and 1982-1983), is arrested after robbing two banks and ultimately is sentenced to a 25-year prison term. Nine years later, Hayhow will write articles for The Struggle, the tabloid of the COTC’s successor organization. (Southern Poverty Law Center 9/1999)

George Loeb, a minister in the virulently racist Church of the Creator (COTC—see 1973 and 1982-1983), writes a letter to the editor of the Fort Pierce Tribune. Loeb writes in part: “To you, your readers, and all of chose quoted [in a Tribune article], let me just say this_WAKE UP! There is no need to judge each individual n_gger. We do not have the time.… It is your obvious intention to reinforce the mistaken impressions of the ignorant. This is to the detriment of the besieged white community. It is also why we publish and distribute ‘Racial Loyalty’ [the COTC monthly newsletter]: to offset the deliberate lies and distortions of the jewish [sic] media and to motivate White people to clean up this mess themselves since they cannot count on you, your paper, or your police for any help.” Around the same time, Loeb tells a reporter: “The only thing they [blacks] can do is get in my face, and that’s a mistake.… If my back’s against the wall, I won’t run. I have to do what I have to do.” (Anti-Defamation League 1993; Anti-Defamation League 7/6/1999) Two months later, Loeb will murder an African-American man in a Florida parking lot (see June 6, 1991 and After).

George Loeb. [Source: World Church of the Creator]George Loeb, a minister for the white supremacist Church of the Creator (COTC—see 1973 and 1982-1983), is arrested and charged with murdering African-American Gulf War veteran Harold Mansfield Jr. in a Neptune, Florida, parking lot two weeks ago. Confrontation and Murder - Loeb nearly sideswept Mansfield’s car in the parking lot of a local shopping center, and Mansfield honked his horn at Loeb. The two argued before Mansfield drove away. Loeb then drove to a convenience store, where he bought two six-packs of beer, gave the cashier a card reading “White People Awaken. Save the White Race,” and, according to the cashier, angrily shouted racist epithets and statements while in the store. Meanwhile, Mansfield and a friend returned to the parking lot to confront Loeb. The two resumed their argument. (Anti-Defamation League 1993; Anti-Defamation League 7/6/1999; Southern Poverty Law Center 9/1999) According to witnesses, Loeb provoked Mansfield with racial taunts and epithets. (Smothers 5/19/2006) Mansfield brandished a brick, and Loeb pulled out a .25-caliber semiautomatic handgun. Mansfield attempted to retreat, but Loeb shot him in the chest. Loeb then fired at Mansfield’s friend, who fled to the grocery store to escape Loeb and call for help. By the time the friend returned to the car, Mansfield was almost dead. He died shortly thereafter. Previous Arrests for Racially Motivated Altercations - After Loeb’s arrest, the press learns of a previous arrest in November 1990, when Loeb followed an African-American woman and her daughter, called the woman a racial slur, and threatened to shoot her. In January 1991, Loeb was arrested again for starting a fistfight with an African-American neighbor; he was charged with disorderly intoxication and resisting arrest. In April 1991, Loeb wrote a letter to the Fort Pierce Tribune stating his racist views (see April 1991). When they arrest him for Mansfield’s murder, police seize over 1,600 pages of personal correspondence and racist propaganda from Loeb’s apartment, including a document written to a Ku Klux Klan member that reads in part: “The frequent use of the word n_gger should lead to a widespread and violent black uprising that should give whites (and possibly police) the opportunity to kill large numbers of them with impunity. It is our feeling as Creators [COTC members] that shrinking the numbers of blacks worldwide is one of the highest priorities.” Arrest in New York - Loeb and his wife Barbara left their Neptune condominium and fled Florida within hours of the shooting, assisted by fellow COTC member Steve Gabott Thomas. (Thomas is one of four Army soldiers convicted of raping and murdering a Vietnamese woman in 1966, a crime that formed the basis of the 1989 film Casualties of War. He served four years of a life sentence before being released on parole.) On June 6, 1991, the couple is arrested in Poughkeepsie, New York, after George Loeb assaults a grocery store security guard who caught him trying to steal a package of sandwich meat. Officers search their car and find two smoke bombs, a .22-caliber rifle with a scope and extra magazines, a 12-gauge shotgun, and approximately 1,000 rounds of assorted ammunition. Additionally, Barbara Loeb’s purse contains a handgun and ammunition. Convictions - Barbara Loeb is arrested for weapons possession, and later sentenced to a year in prison. George Loeb is charged with murder and extradited to Florida. Loeb will claim that he killed Mansfield in self-defense, and will tell the jury that he contemplated fleeing to Canada because it is a “predominantly white country” where he might expect to be treated more impartially. He will be found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to 25 years without parole. Loeb will attempt to kill himself in the hours after his conviction; he will tell police, “I want to die because the whole world is an _sshole.” Thomas will be convicted of being an accessory after the fact to the murder and sentenced to a year’s probation, likely because he helped police in capturing the Loebs. Martyrdom - COTC members will attempt to portray Loeb as a hero and martyr, claiming that he killed Mansfield in self-defense and is a hero of white people everywhere. However, COTC leader Ben Klassen will not publicly endorse the murder, telling a reporter: “I am no more responsible for [the murder] than the pope is responsible for all the Catholic felons in prison.… Not at all.” Klassen will also tell the reporter that Thomas, who aided the Loebs’ flight, will no longer be a COTC member. However, Thomas will continue to be a prominent member of COTC. (Anti-Defamation League 1993; Anti-Defamation League 7/6/1999; Southern Poverty Law Center 9/1999)

Ben Klassen, the 74-year-old founder and leader of the Church of the Creator (COTC—see 1973 and 1982-1983), cancels the ascension to power of his one-time successor as “Pontifex Maximus” (supreme leader) of the church. Klassen announces that Rudy “Butch” Stanko (see February 1990) will no longer lead the COTC. Instead, Klassen names Baltimore pizza delivery man Charles Altvater to lead the church. Altvater is only known to the COTC membership through a single letter to the editor published in COTC’s monthly newsletter “Racial Loyalty.” Klassen soon changes his mind and names a Milwaukee “skinhead,” Mark Wilson, as his successor; Altvater will soon be arrested in Baltimore on multiple charges, including possession of explosive devices and attempted murder of a police officer. Wilson is the Milwaukee chief of COTC and a member of the “Skinhead Army of Milwaukee” (SHAM), also called the “Northern Hammerskins.” He is introduced as Klassen’s successor under the name “Brandon O’Rourke” (COTC members often use false names to avoid identification by law enforcement officials). Wilson actually assumes a leadership position for a few months before Klassen, wary of SHAM’s propensity for reckless violence, fires him and names yet another successor, Richard “Rick” McCarty (see January 1993 and After). Wilson does not go quietly, and tries unsuccessfully to mount a violent “coup” against McCarty during a meeting at a Milwaukee hotel. (The coup effort fails when three of Wilson’s cohorts are arrested on concealed weapons charges in the hotel parking lot.) (Anti-Defamation League 7/6/1999; Southern Poverty Law Center 9/1999)

“Racial Loyalty,” the monthly newsletter published by the racist Church of the Creator (COTC—see 1973 and 1982-1983), reprints an essay by David Lane on “the Christian Right-wing American Patriots, C.R.A.P. (since that is what they do to [sic] the future of all White children).” Lane is a member of the far-right terrorist group The Order (see Late September 1983) and is serving a 40-year racketeering sentence, as well as a 150-year term for civil rights violation in connection with the 1984 murder of radio talk show host Alan Berg (see June 18, 1984 and After). Many far-right organizations who espouse their own versions of Christianity (see 1960s and After), including the Ku Klux Klan, oppose the COTC’s rejection of Christianity. (Anti-Defamation League 1993)

Ben Klassen, the 74-year-old founder and leader of the Church of the Creator (COTC—see 1973 and 1982-1983), sells most of his North Carolina compound to William Pierce of the neo-Nazi National Alliance (see 1970-1974). Klassen fears that the COTC property will be seized as a result of a lawsuit filed in conjunction with a murder committed by a COTC official (see June 6, 1991 and After). (Southern Poverty Law Center 9/1999)

Richard “Rick” McCarty, the new leader of the Church of the Creator (COTC—see 1973 and Early 1992 - January 1993), moves the COTC headquarters to Niceville, Florida. McCarty is a professional telemarketer with almost no visibility within the COTC or the larger white supremacist movement. He has a criminal record for running a telemarketing scam in Birmingham, Alabama. He begins his tenure by touting a March 1993 appearance on a television talk show hosted by Sally Jessy Raphael, along with three fellow white supremacists and a small group of black separatists; the two sides engage in angry rhetoric, but little else. In August 1993, McCarty tells a local reporter: “People are finally waking up to the fact that the white man is going to have no country of his own. We don’t have nothing against anybody. We just want to repatriate the blacks and Jews back to their countries of origin.” Reporting McCarty’s words, the Palm Beach Post also states that the COTC has no temple or compound in Niceville, “but it does have a warehouse that holds $500,000 in white supremacist pamphlets, newspapers, and books. They are distributed in all 50 states, and 37 foreign countries, McCarty said.” (Southern Poverty Law Center 9/1999)

Geremy von Rineman and his girlfriend Jill Scarborough, members of the Church of the Creator (COTC—see 1973 and July 26, 1993), are arrested for plotting to bomb Los Angeles’s largest black church. Six others who are affiliated with the group are also arrested. The eight are accused of plotting to instigate a racial war by bombing the First African Methodist Episcopal Church, a major black religious institution in South Central Los Angeles, and assassinating Rodney King, the victim of a videotaped beating by white police officers. The King murder was planned for August 4, the sentencing date for two policemen convicted of federal civil rights violations in connection with the beating. The arrests are timed to stop a letter-bombing plot targeting an Orange County rabbi. The indictment also states that other civil rights figures are targeted for attack, including: leaders of the NAACP and the National Urban League; Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan; the Reverend Al Sharpton; rap music stars Eazy-E and members of the group Public Enemy; as well as unspecified “Jewish leaders.” The police seize pipe bombs and machine guns, racist paraphernelia including Confederate and Nazi flags, and a framed portrait of Adolf Hitler. Christopher David Fisher is charged with conspiracy to bomb the church. Von Rineman, Scarborough, Josh Lee, Chris Nadal, and Doris Nadal are charged with a variety of weapons offenses. Two unidentified juveniles are charged with unspecified crimes, though Time magazine will later claim that one of the juveniles had been charged with a pipe-bomb attack against a “half Asian and half Mexican” member of the “Spur Posse,” a gang of Lakewood, California, teenagers who awarded points among themselves for sexual conquests. Fisher, a grade school teacher, is the head of a small “skinhead” gang called the Fourth Reich Skins. Rineman is not only a member of COTC, he is a member of the White Aryan Resistance (WAR), as is Scarborough. (Anti-Defamation League 7/6/1999; Southern Poverty Law Center 9/1999)

Police arrest two Washington State residents, Jeremiah Gordon Knesal and Wayne Paul Wooten, both 19, for shoplifting at a mall parking lot in Salinas, California. Knesal is a leader of a local chapter of the Church of the Creator (COTC—see 1973, Early 1992 - January 1993, and July 15, 1993). Upon searching Knesal’s car, officers find three pipe bombs, four loaded long-barrel weapons, military apparel, ammunition, wigs, climbing gear, white supremacist literature, and a page from a Portland, Oregon, telephone book listing Jewish agencies and synagogues. Under questioning from the FBI, Knesal confesses to his involvement in the July 20 firebombing of a National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) office in Tacoma, Washington. Knesal implicates Mark Frank Kowaalski, an ex-convict and member of the “skinhead” group American Front, as his partner in the bombing. FBI agents arrest Kowaalski the same day in Seattle, and find evidence linking him to the bombing as well as Knesal and Wooten. Agents will later say that the Tacoma bombing was part of a larger plan to attack Jewish and African-American institutions, military installations (particularly those housing submarines), gay and lesbian gathering places, and radio and television stations. The three also reportedly planned to assassinate two rap music performers, Ice Cube and Ice-T. (Anti-Defamation League 1993; Southern Poverty Law Center 9/1999)

Resistance Records logo. [Source: Blood and Honour Central (.co.uk)]George Burdi, the Toronto leader of the Church of the Creator (COTC—see 1973 and Early 1992 - January 1993), helps found Resistance Records, a Detroit-based music label that records and markets racist “skinhead” music. Burdi is a member of the skinhead band RaHoWa. (Southern Poverty Law Center 9/1999) Burdi uses the COTC’s monthly newsletter, “Racial Loyalty,” to distribute his label’s records, in part because of Canada’s restrictive anti-hate speech laws. Resistance Records also markets other “skinhead” bands such as Nordic Thunder, Aggravated Assault, Aryan, and The Voice. “The market’s phenomenal,” Burdi tells the Toronto Star. “We have a monopoly on it and it’s virtually untapped.… Music is fed on controversy. Ignore us and we get huge because we can develop unhindered. Attack us and we get huge because you create controversy and the youth want to hear us. Either way, we win.” The same year he founds Resistance Records, Burdi is charged with assaulting a female member of the organization Anti-Racist Action. (Anti-Defamation League 1993) Resistance Records is later bought out by the neo-Nazi National Alliance (see Summer 1999), an organization founded and led by white supremacist novelist William Pierce (see 1970-1974, 1978). (Potok 6/2005)

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) files a lawsuit against the Church of the Creator (COTC—see 1973 and Early 1992 - January 1993) on behalf of the family of Harold Mansfield, the black war veteran murdered by a COTC member (see June 6, 1991 and After). Group leader Richard “Rick” McCarty does not contest the suit, and the Mansfield family is awarded a $1 million default judgment. The SPLC will file a related lawsuit against William Pierce, the neo-Nazi group leader who took possession of much of the COTC’s land and property in order to keep it from any such judgment on behalf of Mansfield; a court will find in favor of Mansfield and levy a judgment for $85,000 against Pierce, the profit he realized after selling the COTC property (see July 1992 and Mid-May, 2006). (Southern Poverty Law Center 9/1999)

Matthew Hale. [Source: Anti-Defamation League]Twenty-four-year-old Matthew Hale, desiring to head a “religious” rather than a political group, revives the near-moribund Church of the Creator (COTC—see 1973) in East Peoria, Illinois, where he lives with his father. The COTC was nearly obliterated by a series of crippling judgments against it in regards to a murder committed by one of its former officials (see 1994). Hale has described himself as a white supremacist from the age of 11, after, he claims, discovering that “white people had been responsible for the vast majority of progress in the world, and as such, the idea that the races were ‘equal’ to one another seemed incorrect.” He is fascinated with Nazism and the work of Adolf Hitler, and formed a neo-Nazi group called “The New Reich” at age 14. Three years ago, Hale proclaimed himself the “National Leader” of the National Socialist White Americans’ Party; as a college freshman, he founded the American White Supremacist Party (AWSP) before dissolving it and unsuccessfully attempting to form a chapter of David Duke’s National Association for the Advancement of White People (NAAWP). After abandoning his attempt to start a chapter of the NAAWP, Hale became involved with the COTC. Hale tells old COTC members that he is the “great promoter” that COTC founder Ben Klassen long promised. He enters law school in the fall; in December, he renames the group the World Church of the Creator. Hale will write of Jews: “Among ‘humans‘… there is an inborn parasite. That parasite is the Jew.” Of blacks and Asians, he will write: “Why do the n_ggers think on a lower level than we do? Because they have smaller, less developed brains. Why do Orientals think fiendishly, deviously? Because they have a different brain structure.” Of the US government, he will write, “Until the Jewish parasite is removed from the government, we Creators shall oppose all military endeavors brought in its name, for all policies emanating from [it] advance the interests of the Jews and militate against the interests of our people.” (Anti-Defamation League 7/6/1999; Southern Poverty Law Center 9/1999; Anti-Defamation League 2005)

Matthew Hale, attempting to revive and expand the nearly-defunct Church of the Creator (COTC—see 1973 and July-December 1995), joins with two old COTC members, Matthew Hayhow (see August 1990) and Guy Lombardi, and convenes a gathering at the Montana ranch of COTC leader leader Slim Deardorff. Hale is elected Pontifex Maximus (supreme leader), and Jonathan Viktor, a devotee of COTC founder Ben Klassen, is chosen Hastus Primus, or vice president, of the reconstituted group, now officially named the World Church of the Creator (WCOTC). Hale is successful at revitalizing the organization, aggressively marketing it through pamphlets, newsletters, Web sites, a public access television show, and highly publicized public meetings. Perhaps its most popular publication is a 32-page booklet entitled “Facts that the Government and the Media Don’t Want You to Know,” which many people find on their porches and in their driveways. The booklet, written by Hale, denigrates nonwhites and promotes anti-Semitic theories about Jewish control of the media, the so-called “Kosher Food Tax,” and material allegedly demonstrating the biological superiority of whites. Unlike many white supremacist organizations, Hale works to reach out to women and children, offering far more recognition and involvement to women than other, similar movements. Hale himself is a frequent guest on national television and radio talk shows. (Southern Poverty Law Center 9/1999; Anti-Defamation League 2005)

Erica Chase, a member of the World Church of the Creator (WCOTC—see May 1996 and After), is convicted of plotting to blow up Jewish and African-American landmarks in and around Boston. Her boyfriend, Leo Felton, a member of the small white supremacist group The White Order of Thule, is also convicted of the same set of crimes. Chase is given five years in prison by US District Court Judge Nancy Gertner, who calls the plans “hateful” and “horrible”; Felton, who has served time for attempting to murder an African-American taxi driver, receives nearly 22 years in prison. Prosecutors accused Chase and Felton of plotting to foment a “racial holy war” (see 1973). Chase tells the court that she is sorry for her role in the plot and no longer harbors her racial hatreds. “I didn’t see how ugly and disturbing my life was when I was living in the middle of it. I had to be ripped out of it,” she says. “I have a lot of shame for everything.” The couple was arrested in August 2001 for passing counterfeit bills. Prosecutors said that Felton made the counterfeit money to help fund the plan, which included the use of a “fertilizer bomb” similar to that used in the Oklahoma City bombing (see 8:35 a.m. - 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995). The defense argued that the two were prosecuted solely for their white supremacist beliefs. (Lavoie 3/13/2003)

The Creativity Alliance logo. [Source: Wikimedia]After the World Church of the Creator (WCOTC—see May 1996 and After) renames itself the Creativity Movement and nearly dissolves (see 2004-2005), a splinter group calling itself the Creativity Alliance forms. It is formed from former members of the earlier WCOTC, and claims no alliance with the Creativity Movement, though, like its parent organization, it views Ben Klassen (see 1973) as its founder. It has a more informal organizational structure than the older organization, with individual members expected to find at least one receptive white person to join them in the formation of a local chapter. The Alliance claims to eschew violence and says it is not involved in “the ‘White Power’ social scene,” but a 2008 article from its Web site uses racial slurs against African-Americans and Jews, and ends with the call: “White man fight! White man fight! White man fight!” (Southern Poverty Law Center 2010)

John Birch Society logo. [Source: John Birch Society]John F. McManus, the head of the far-right, anti-Communist John Birch Society (JBS), releases a booklet through the organization entitled “Reality vs. Myth” that attempts to, in the words of the JBS, “set the record straight” about what the organization is and is not. According to McManus, the JBS has never held anti-Semitic or racist views, or tolerated such within its organization. All such assertions come from “enemies” of the organization, often from persons or organizations with Communist affiliations (see March 10, 1961 and 1963), he writes. (McManus 2011) History of Anti-Communism - The organization was founded in 1958 by candy magnate Robert Welch, a former Massachusetts Republican Party official who began railing about what he considered the “pervasive” influence of Communism in all aspects of American society, particularly in the federal government. Liberals are inherently opposed to freedom and democracy, Welch argued, because liberals are in favor of collectivism/socialism, and therefore are witting or unwitting traitors to the individualist tenets that underlie the US Constitution. The JBS became a vocal opponent of the United Nations, alleging as early as 1959 that the UN intended to establish a “New World Order” (NWO) or “one-world government” (see September 11, 1990). The JBS has also portrayed itself as a fundamentally Christian organization, and views Communism and other non-American forms of government as inherently “godless.” Since the end of World War II, the organization has asserted, the US government has been actively attempting to implement “godless Communism” in place of a Constitutional democracy, including a 1958 claim by Welch that then-President Eisenhower was “a dedicated conscious agent of the communist conspiracy.” Some “Bircher” officials have touted the NWO as being rooted in the alleged Illuminati Freemason conspiracy. In 1964, the JBS enthusiastically supported the presidential candidacy of Senator Barry Goldwater (R-AZ), though a large number of members supported Eisenhower’s vice-president, Richard Nixon (R-CA) over Goldwater. The organization opposed John F. Kennedy (D-MA), accusing him of being a traitor and a Communist dupe (see November 1963), accusations it had also leveled against Eisenhower. After Goldwater’s defeat, Welch attempted to land the segregationist governor of Alabama, George Wallace (D-AL), as a standardbearer for the JBS. (Political Research Associates 2010) McManus insists that the JBS’s overarching loyalty is to the Christian Bible, the US Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. ” Our organization was created to uphold the truths in the Declaration and the limitations upon government in the Constitution,” he writes. “Not alone in such an endeavor, we welcome all who treasure what our nation’s Founders produced.” (McManus 2011) Less Overt Racist, Anti-Semitic Stances - During the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, the JBS painted the civil rights movement as a Communist conspiracy, accusing “ignorant” and “uneducated” African-Americans of either being witting or unwitting dupes of a Communist conspiracy against America. It launched a powerful and well-organized assault on the civil rights movement, calling it a “fraud” and labeling it the “Negro Revolutionary Movement.” Some JBS publications and officials also asserted that the nation’s financial system was controlled largely by Jews with little if any loyalty to the US, and in some instances actively working to undermine and destabilize America’s economy. Such assertions led many to characterize the JBS as a racist and anti-Semitic organization, characterizations that the organization has always disputed. It has touted its very small number of African-American and Jewish members as proof of its claims not to be institutionally racist or anti-Semitic. In 2010, the liberal Political Research Associates (PRA) wrote: “The JBS… discouraged overt displays of racism, while it promoted policies that had the effect of racist oppression by its opposition to the Civil Rights movement. The degree of political racism expressed by the JBS was not ‘extremist’ but similar to that of many mainstream Republican and Democratic elected officials at the time. This level of mainstream racism should not be dismissed lightly, as it was often crude and sometimes violent, treating Black people in particular as second-class citizens, most of whom had limited intelligence and little ambition. In [one JBS publication], Martin Luther King, Jr. is portrayed as an agent of a massive communist conspiracy to agitate among otherwise happy Negroes to foment revolution, or at least promote demands for more collectivist federal government intrusion.” PRA also went on to note that one of its founders, Revilo P. Oliver, was forced to resign from the JBS after making anti-Semitic and racist comments at a 1996 JBS rally. And, the PRA wrote, “When crude antisemitism was detected in JBS members, their membership was revoked[,]” though the organization still held that anti-American Jews were attempting to do damage to the nation’s economy. “At its core, however, the Birch view of the conspiracy does not reveal it to be controlled or significantly influenced by Jews in general, or a secret group of conniving Jews, nor is their evidence of a hidden agenda within the Society to promote suspicion of Jews. The Society always struggled against what it saw as objectionable forms of prejudice against Jews, but it can still be criticized for having continuously promoted mild antisemitic stereotyping. Nevertheless, the JBS was closer to mainstream stereotyping and bigotry than the naked race hate and genocidal antisemitism of neonazi or KKK groups. In a sense, the Birch society pioneered the encoding of implicit cultural forms of ethnocentric White racism and Christian nationalist antisemitism rather than relying on the White supremacist biological determinism and open loathing of Jews that had typified the old right prior to WWII. Throughout its existence, however, the Society has promoted open homophobia and sexism. The Society’s anti-communism and states rights libertarianism was based on sincere principles, but it clearly served as a cover for organizing by segregationists and White supremacists. How much of this was conscious, and how much unconscious, is difficult to determine.” (Political Research Associates 2010) McManus calls attempts to point out the JBS’s history of implicit racism and anti-Semitism as deliberate, dishonest attempts to “stigmatize” the group, usually by persons and organizations who are working to implement a one-world government and see the JBS as a roadblock to that goal. “There was no evidence that the Society was racist, neo-Nazi, anti-Semitic, or subversive of good order,” McManus claims. “But that didn’t stop many from making such charges.… There were some attempts to defend JBS against the flood of vicious characterizations but these were overwhelmed by widespread and undeserved nastiness. No private organization in our nation’s history had ever been treated so unfairly.” He calls efforts to show the JBS as racist “vicious” and false. “If truth were told,” he writes, “the John Birch Society should be congratulated nationally for its important work in diffusing racial animosities.” (McManus 2011) Many prominent white supremacist leaders used their membership in the JBS to help promote their more overtly racist organizations (see 1970-1974 and 1973). Former Ku Klux Klan leader Johnny Lee Clary has said the JBS “is just a political version of the KKK, without the name of the KKK. They center on the political ideas of the Klan and are not as vocal in public on the ideas of the racial superiority, but they attract the same people and say the same things behind closed doors.… They are racist, and full of hate and are officially listed as a hate group with several civil rights organizations throughout the USA” (see April 13, 2009). Among other non-white leaders, the JBS has labeled South Africa’s Nelson Mandela as a “Communist tyrant” (see December 11, 2009). Reframing Itself - In the late 1970s, the JBS saw its influence waning as more modern organizations comprising what some have called the “New Right” came to the fore. In the 1980s, the JBS lost even more influence after attacking Reagan administration policies. It managed to revive itself by toning down its anti-Communist rhetoric and emphasizing its warnings about the New World Order and positioning itself as a long-time advocate of right-wing, muscularly patriotic popularism. Author and journalist Andrew Reinbach notes that the JBS provided an ideological “seed bank” for many of the tenets currently embraced by the various “tea party” organizations on the right (see February 4-8, 2010 and February 15, 2010), an assertion echoed by conservative journalist Matthew Boyle. (Reinbach 9/12/2011; Boyle 11/29/2011) McManus credits the JBS with helping bring about the impeachment of then-President Clinton, stopping the establishment of a free-trade entity in the Western Hemisphere, and putting an end to what it calls “the drive to a sovereignty-compromising North American Union.” McManus says JBS efforts to “educate” the world about the UN has prevented that organization “from becoming the tyrannical world government intended by its founders.” He writes that the JBS successfully thwarted the federal government’s alleged plans to federalize all American law enforcement, and credits the JBS’s black membership with preventing wholesale rioting and insurrection during the Civil Rights Era. He touts the JBS as being one of the primary organizations that blocked the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment. And he credits the JBS with being among the first organizations to warn about what it calls the dangers of illegal immigration. He touts the support of, among others, presidential candidate Ron Paul (R-TX—see 1978-1996 and July 22, 2007) and conservative commentator Pat Buchanan (see June 12, 2009, June 20, 2009, July 16, 2009, and October 18, 2011 and After) as validating the organization’s ideology and positions, and notes that in recent years, the JBS was an official sponsor of the Conservative Political Action Conference (see April 19, 2010 and February 9-11, 2012). And he claims that attempts to paint tea party organizations as far-right, racist, or homophobic are similar to the efforts by Communists and NWO conspiratists to destroy the Society. He concludes by writing to prospective members: “Don’t allow yourself to be influenced by the false image created by the Society’s enemies. Our country is under attack and The John Birch Society offers a workable plan to combat it.” (McManus 2011)